What would the hip-hop game be without dope beats for rappers to spit on? Or any genre of music for that matter?
For every hot song, there’s an artist that delivers the heat, a songwriter whose words speak to the fans and a producer that puts heavy work into the beat.
Verse Simmonds is swiftly moving up the ladder in the songwriting and production world, now proving that the man behind the sounds can be the man on top of it. From the Virgin Islands to the soundboards, there’s no stopping this man once he’s at work on a beat.
Let Pusha T, Kanye West & Young Jeezy Pray “Amen” (NEW MUSIC)
As one-half of the Jugganauts production team along with partner Shame “Sak Pase” Joseph, the proud Caribbean native has been hard at work, recently produced two tracks on Watch The Throne and Rihanna’s Loud hit “Man Down,” on top of Verse recently releasing his second mixtape, The Sextape Chronicles 2.
Check out GlobalGrind’s sit down interview with the man behind your favorite dubstep and Throne music.
See what the ’80s baby had to say about being his own competition like fellow Virgo Beyonce, making the soundtrack to a sextape and Jay-Z’s influence on Kanye.
Global Grind: You produced before you started your solo musical career. When did you start producing?
Verse Simmonds: I’ve been songwriting and producing officially as the Jugganauts, which is me and my partner Sak Pase, since ’03, so we’ve been doing it since then. It’s just been a ride man, it’s been 8 years and it’s finally starting to really pay off.
How have you held on to your Caribbean background in your music production and songwriting?
I think it helped that both of us have a Caribbean background, he’s Haitian and I’m from the Virgin Islands, so I think it’s something that we can’t really even help, it’s what we hear. And it’s how we hear it, and how we deliver it I think, is our biggest factor. It’s all based on the fact that we have a Caribbean background and the music we grew up listening to, from the Bob Marleys and the different dance hall artists such as Sean Paul and Shaggy, all of those people. And then you mix that up with the mainstream R&B culture that we’ve been listening to all our lives from Will Smith and Babyface, and in hip-hop the Jay-Zs, the Kanyes. It just all comes together and we can kind of make our own sound with it.
Do you have a relationship with Roc City? They’re really big on just keeping it Virgin Islands.
Very Virgin Islands. Yes I do, we’ve been best friends since the seventh grade.
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Who is your biggest inspiration?
I think life is my biggest inspiration. I can’t point out a particular person, in life you come across so many people that inspire you in different ways that you don’t even realize. Just life itself, just everyday waking up and seeing the sun rise everyday is just an inspiration in itself. Musically my biggest inspiration is probably Bob Marley.
What’s your dream collaboration?
I think it would be really dope if I did a record with Sean Paul. He’s got on one of my, but I haven’t done one with him. That would be a dope collaboration. Rihanna would also be a dope collaboration.
Didn’t you produce her son “Man Down”?
Yes, I hear that everyday. People love it because they know that it’s natural for her. That’s where she comes from, and I’ve always felt like she should never leave that behind. Every one of her albums needs to reflect the fact that she is Caribbean. And I respect what she does when she does the crossover pop music and that’s cool, I like that as well. But I don’t think she needs to leave behind the fact that she’s Caribbean.
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That’s how she got big, she was the only person in her lane.
Yes she was, and we have that conversation lots of times where it’s like how do you continue to be an artist and have records that are only your lane and she’s one of the people that could do it. So when she does a “Man Down” there’s no other female artist that can do that. But when she does the “S&M” every other pop girl can do that. So this is the type of record that could set her apart from everybody else in the industry.
Did you hear about the controversy as far as her video goes? How did you feel about that?
I felt like being an artist is just that, being an artist. You should be able to express that. And every time you express it it’s not going to be peachy. The song says “rum pum pum pum, man down” so it’s like somebody gotta die. I felt like the media really took it and spun it. I wasn’t mad at the way she portrayed it because I felt like it was still in a cinematic way, it wasn’t just a raunchy video where she just pulled out a gun on the guy and shot him in his head for no reason. So I like the video and I think at some point people are going to respect it later on.
Does seeing that type of controversy and criticism in the media ever make you feel hesitant to do certain things as you further your career?
For me, no, because at the end of the day you have to be able to push the envelope these days. Everything’s been done, what can you do that’s different, it’s the time that I think we’re in. And a lot of artists sometimes get locked into the box of trying to please the media. They’re going to get on you regardless. Whatever it is, they’re going to find a reason. So I’d be like give them a reason to talk about you, that’s fine.
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What are you working on right now?
We’ve been working on the new single with Kelly Rowland, as well as Rihanna’s upcoming album as well. She picked two records that we did for her thus far, I think they’re closing up the album really soon. We did a record with Busta Rhymes and he just go Chris Brown on it. We just put out a record called “Bonkers” with Swizz Beatz. So we got a lot of little things going on. I’ve got a mixtape coming out August 1st, it’s called Sextape Chronicles 2. I’m really excited about it, I think a lot of people are going to listen to it and really fall in love with it because I think it’s honest. The reason I came up with the concept of the Sextape Chronicles because I people to think like if you were looking at a sextape what would be the theme music behind it? What would be the score to it? And that’s how I came up with the concept. I put out Sextape Chronicles 1 in late 2009, so it’s about time for part two.
You don’t have a sextape, do you?
I have a few maybe. They’re in safe keeping though.
So what gets your creative juices flowing?
For me it’s not so much about thinking, as it is feeling. I try to feel my way through a record instead of thinking about it. What happens when you‘re thinking about it is a lot of times it’s not coming out honest because you’re thinking of ways to not say something, rather than just saying what you feel. And I think when you say what you feel, a lot more people can relate to it as opposed to trying to stop yourself from saying certain things or trying to make a specific type of record for somebody.
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Do you feel like there are any songwriters out here that you’re competing with to evoke more emotion from a certain audience? Who are your biggest competitors?
Me, I’m my biggest competitor. I’m not a competitive person, I think it may be because I’m a Virgo.
Beyonce is a Virgo.
I think she competes with herself. Who is Beyonce competing with? That’s the question I want to know. Because I don’t even think she even has somebody to compete with, besides trying to be herself. And that’s the same way for me, it’s like if I’m going to compete with somebody, I’m competing with myself. I’m not really looking at what this person is doing, I’m looking at how can I beat the last thing that I did. It’s hard to focus on what you’re doing if you’re worried about what other people are doing.
We watched your VEVO video when you were cutting your hair and you said you were bringing the Gumby back because you were an ’80s baby. If there was any other ’80s or retro trend that you could bring back, what would it be?
It would probably be the Back to the Future movie. I wanted that hoverboard thing that they had. Where is that? Why don’t we have that yet?
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If you were on a deserted island and you could only bring three albums, what would they be?
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, that would be my number one record that I bring. I didn’t have to think about that one so the rest I have to think about. I think the next one would be College Dropout. The thing is, when that first came out, I wasn’t really a Kanye fan. It took me a while to actually get into him and realize that dude is really beyond genius. He really understands that every album has to be a theme, every album has a sound. And give me any one of Bob Marley’s albums, because I’m going to need some peace in my life.
We know that you worked on the Watch the Throne album. Do you think that Jay-Z is still Kanye’s mentor?
I definitely think that Jay-Z will always be his mentor because of the fact that you always have a big brother or big sister that you look up to. No matter if you pass them in your travels, you remember they’re still a lot of the reason why you’re there, because you’ve watched them do what they do. And they’ve opened up the lane for you to become who you are. And I think that Jay-Z opened a massive lane for Kanye to become who he is today. He gave him a brand that I would have to say if he wasn’t on Roc-A-Fella at the time that he was, Kanye might not be here today in the light that he is in because that was a major platform at the time. He came in under a group of people that had already been to such a peak, that for him to come in at that time, it just made him a mega star.
Do you have a celebrity crush?
I feel like this changes every time I’m asked. But Sanaa Lathan actually, I think I’m going to stick to Sanaa from now on.
